PlayStation 4 backwards compatibility to be entirely virtualized

Sony will be taking complete advantage of its purchase of Gaikai, and it’s cloud gaming services, for its soon-to-be-announced PlayStation 4. According to a recent tip from The Wall Street Journal, and a teaser video just released by Sony, we see that all signs are pointing to the PlayStation 4 being backwards compatible with PlayStation 3 games through a total streaming service with Gaikai.

Previously, it was speculated that PlayStation 3 games would not be backwards compatible with the PlayStation 4 because the PlayStation 4 would be utilizing a new AMD x86 chip. The chip would be incompatible with the architecture in the previous consoles. Gaikai’s cloud-gaming service would be the solution to that. Also, it’s speculated that with the Gaikai cloud-gaming streaming service, PlayStation 3 titles may not just be limited to the PlayStation 4. It could be streamed to the PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 3 itself, and even tablets and smartphones. Of course, it’s up to Sony to utilize it that way.

Gaikai will not be streaming PlayStation 4 titles because the max resolution it can output is 720p. Streaming the games would also require Gaikai servers to be relatively close to Playstation 4 users, and for the users to have a great internet connection. Gaikai only has experience streaming PC games, so even streaming PlayStation 3 will be a new challenge for the company.

The PlayStation 4 is speculated to cost about 40,000 yen, or $400, and it will be announced at Sony’s press conference in just two days. There, we will hear the details of the console and all it’s glory. It was just recently brought to our attention that Gaikai would be attending the conference as well, leading us to believe that the two have a huge, joint announcement for all of us.